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Curtis Bell
Curtis Bell was an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia who often worked closely with the Philly PD's Homicide Unit. He would begin dating Homicide Detective Kat Miller in 2009. History Curtis' father had been a police officer, killed in the line of duty, and thus tended to get along well with officers. Curtis claimed to have Attention Deficit Disorder, and thus appeared forgetful and disoriented at times, leading to both police and suspects underestimating him. Curtis had a young daughter who had a habit of putting stickers on his briefcase. He had endured a number of ugly custody battles with his ex-wife, whom he referred to as "the soul crusher". Curtis first worked with Homicide detectives starting in late 2008. One of his first cases was the reopening of the 2005 murder of city council candidate Dexter Collins. The gun was found to be registered to Jay Quincy, who had reported it stolen, but was suspected of having sold it, along with several others. Kat and Curtis interrogated Quincy, who initially denied selling any guns. When Curtis pointed out that the was reported that the gun was reported stolen from the home of his mother Mrs. Quincy, he folded and agreed to pick the buyer, Jorge Gonzalez, out of a line-up. Though Kat was unimpressed when Curtis showed up late for the line-up, (Curtis showed up with a damaged bike, claiming he'd had car trouble), he was able to pressure Quincy to pick out Jorge, which led to Jorge's employer, Warren Wilson, who had bought the gun, and later used it to kill Collins. Weeks later, Detective Lilly Rush asked for Curtis' assistance in obtaining a subpoena for the GPS in Jeff Feldman's phone after he went missing while looking for the murderer of his father Ben Feldman. She was somewhat frustrated when he didn't respond to three voicemails. Bell later tracked down a suspect, Vinnie Buonaforte, now living as "Vinnie Brown" in Witness Protection, and intercepted a recent text message sent from Jeff's phone, which later led to detective finding him. When Detective Will Jeffries and store owner Henry "Pops" Walters were shot, fatally, in Pops' case, and evidence pointed to a mutual acquaintance named James Valentine, Curtis obtained Valentine's juvenile record, despite it having been sealed after his turning eighteen. Curtis refused to leave Homicide until someone was charged with the shooting. Eventually, twelve year-old Gabriel Ariza was charged with the shooting, being wounded by Lilly during the process. At the hearing Gabriel's attorney, Ed Rosenthal aggressively cross-examined Lilly on the stand, accusing her of misconduct, even bringing up her prior shooting of George Marks. Afterwards, Curtis reminded Rosenthal he had previously helped him get a DUI charge dropped. Rosenthal pointed out it wasn't personal, and urged Curtis to let Gabriel be tried as a juvenile, suggesting the incriminating statement against him would be thrown out. Curtis retored if that were the case, Gabriel would be charged with felony murder with a mandatory life sentence. He then negotiated a thrid-degree murder charge, with a twenty-five to fifty years sentence for shooting Jeffries. Rosenthal agreed, though Curtis insisted on an apology to Lilly as well. Lilly would later ask for Curtis' help when a judge refused to allow detectives access to murder victim Dr. Julie Ramierez's patient records on ground of doctor-patient privledge. Curtis pointed out that Dr. Ramierez's personal records were exempt from privledge and was able to obtain them for Lilly soon after. Lilly also overheard an argument between Curtis and his ex-wife over custody issues, and later noticed a sticker Curtis' daughter had placed on his briefcase. Curtis privately admitted his ex would prefer if he simply walked away, though Lilly suggested Bell wasn't the type to give up without a fight. Sometime later, Curtis was able to gain some time with his daughter, who placed a number of new stickers on his briefcase. Curtis would surprise Kat sometime after this by inviting her on a date to a concert by a band called the Heartless Bastards. She was taken aback, but agreed, provided he bought dinner first. When Lilly's car was run off a bridge during the investigation of the 2005 murder of Kate Butler, a cadet at Pennsylvania Military Institute, Curtis pushed for a chance to prosecute her assailant, Major Moe Kitchener, however the attempted homicde of a police officer in Box County carried greater weight than the charges against him in Philly, however, he did attend the hearing to support Lilly. Despite an impressive showing by Lilly on the stand, Judge J. Wyatt, granted bail at a much lower setting than the prosecutor had called for. Curtis would later deliver further bad news to Lilly that Moe's trial would not commence for eight months, which outraged her. On a personal note, Curtis was puzzled when Kat seemed ambivalent about going on a second date with him, despite the first one apparently having gone well. After noticing Kat defended him in front of her colleagues, Curtis finally asked her about it. Kat admitted the date had gone well but Bell hadn't made any sort of move when he took her home, leaving her puzzled about his interest. Bell immediately kissed her on the spot, clearing things up immediately. Curtis would later join Kat and the rest of the Homicide detective for a dinner at Gibbs' Steakhouse. Curtis and Kat were still dating weeks later, but struggling to find some overlapping time between their work and children. Despite a mix-up, with Bell accidentally clearing his schedule for the wrong day, he was able to have a brief dinner with Kat in the squad late one evening. Since Moe was released on bail, Lilly began waging a personal vendetta against him, having traffic officer place a boot on his car, harassing his loan officer to ensure his application for a loan would be denied, having him arrsted on a DUI charges and thrown in the drunk tank with a large inmate name Tito. Moe had filed a number of complaints against her with Internal Affairs, but more recently had filed one against her with the DA's office. Curtis warned her that she could not only lose her job, but be prosecuted for a crime. Lilly appeared unmoved, however. Meanwhile, Kat approached Curtis on another matter; Jarrod Jones, a former gang-banger and father of her daughter Veronica Miller had married and moved back to Philadelphia recently and petitioned for Veronica to stay with him two weekends a month. Curtis pointed out that he could force Jarrod to file a custody complaint, but that Veronica might have to testify. Curtis instead suggested that she meet with Jarrod and talk in person. Curtis agreed to come for support. Kat and Curtis met with Jarrod and his new wife Chantel Jones at a diner, where Jarrod and Chantal explained how she had two daughter of her own and had a room free for Veronica at their new home. Kat, however, walked out in frustration after this. Curtis later caught up with Kat at Homicide, where Kat said Jarrod would have to go to court to see Veronica. Curtis pointed out that Jarrod would likely be presented as a reformed man and that judges tend to lean towards letting parents have contact with their children. Kat insisted that her situation with Jarrod was different than Curtis' and that "not everyone deserves a second chance." Curtis, after several ugly custody battles of his own, took offense at this, and said "a guy should be able to see his own kid." Curtis then walked off without another word. Curtis and Kat would be estranged for some time after this. Kat even refused to attend the wedding of forensic tech Louie Amante if Curtis was there. Curtis did attend and was surprised to discover that Lilly had some suspicions about the bride, Anna Coulson, after learning her first fiancé, Dan Palmer had died in a mysterious fall from his hotel room balcony two years earlier only hours after he called off the wedding. Curtis was dubious about Lilly's timing, but decided to help her get a chance to speak alone with Anna. Posing as Lilly's drunk boyfriend, he deliberately stumbled and spilled wine on Anna's dress, so Lilly could take her to the washroom to help her clean up. Their conversation, however, led to the awkward revelation that Louie had been at the hotel the night of Dan's death, trying to win over Anna, making him a possible suspect. Curtis, Lilly, and the other detectives at the wedding then had to question Louie about his whereabouts that night. Louie insisted Dan had been alive when Louie left, though he was irritated at the accusation. Eventually, Dan's former best man, Phil admitted that Dan's death had been a suicide, freeing up Curtis and the detectives to enjoy the rest of the wedding reception, including an amusing moment when Anna's bouquet landed right at Lilly's feet. Curtis tried to rekindle his relationship with Kat, but she remained cool to him for sometime after this. Eventually, however she admitted that Veronica had been seeing her father every other weekened and seemed happy. The two would reconcile after this. Appearances Season 6 *"Street Money" *"Witness Protection" *"Officer Down" *"Mind Games" *"The Long Blue Line" Season 7 *"The Crossing" *"Iced" *"Bombers" *"Two Weddings" *"Free Love" Bell, Curtis